WCKD's Ada
by Mammps
Summary: The second person to arrive at the Glade wasn't expected so soon but she was more than welcome. Ada would become the first woman of the Glade and be the focus of the Glade's only love triangle. But when Thomas arrives, things start to change and secrets are revealed, will she stay strong or will she crumble? Alby/OC/Newt
1. Prologue

**AN. HI, THIS IS MY NEW STORY AND MY FIRST MAZE RUNNER FAN FICTION. I LOVE THE FILM AND I'M CURRENTLY READING THROUGH THE BOOK SO SOME THINGS WILL BE BASED ON THE FILM AND SOME ON THE BOOK.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the maze runner, or any of it plotlines, characters, monsters, places or virus'. I only own my OC Ada, named after 19th Century Mathematician Ada Lovelace, and her plotline and background. **

**Prologue**

My heart raced as I ran. I could hear the whirling mechanical noise that could only come from a Griever but I couldn't risk looking back in case I slowed down or tripped over or run into a moving wall. My bare feet made a slapping noise as they bounded against the floor, getting slicker and slicker with griever slime as I ran. I quickly dashed left as the passage straight ahead, that I had been planning to take, closed in front of me. I was running as fast as my legs could take me, the whirling noise was getting fainter but I just couldn't risk stopping to check or take a breather.

I came to a crossroads, I went to turn right. I wanted to stay in the inner ring of the maze and the left turning would lead me in the direction of the outer ring. My momentum stopped as my heart leapt. Right in front of me at the other end of the corridor on the right turn was a griever and it was staring right at me, in the same way Gally stares at his food.

I turned and ran into the left corridor, going through the internal map that I had in my mind. There were other ways that I could use to stay on the inside ring from where I was running, right had just been the easiest. I went to take the next left but there was a griever at the end of that corridor too. I risked a glance back at where I came from, that griever was still there. I couldn't believe my luck, I have ran the maze for three years alongside Minho and we'd never seen a single griever and one night in the maze, I've seen four.

The first griever ran after Thomas when he suggested we split up, after all a Griever can't split in two to follow both of us. The second had found me almost as soon as I'd left Thomas. It had snuck up on me, so I made a split second decision to grab my shoes from my feet and throw them at it. It gave me a head start and I presume as it was no longer following me that I'd lost it. And now I had two blocking the way I wanted to go. As I make yet another right turn, leading me closer to the outer ring, I made a prayer that even if I don't make it I hope Thomas, Minho and Alby were going to make it till the doors open in the morning.

My feet slipped as I turned around the corner to the centre ring, the only section of the maze where you can run through all eight sections in one go. I wobbled but managed to keep my balance. I risked a glance, both of the grievers were still following me as I sprinted along the only open stretch of the maze and into the blades of section 1. I paused slightly at the sight of the blades. They were moving, faster than the walls in the maze. They weren't changing in any recognisable pattern, if I went in I could end up getting trapped inside with a griever. The whirling noise made me spin round to look the way I came. The two grievers that had been following me had become three and they were closing in. I made another split second decision and ran into the blades. I stood more chance in them than out of them.

I could feel my heart hammering as I ran left, right, right, left, right, left, left, to avoid the changing blades. I'd lost sight of the grievers in the blades but I could still hear them so I kept running and turning. My quickly created plan was to trick the grievers into the blades then run back out and into the inner section of the maze, but the quickly changing blades that seemed to follow no pattern or even resemble the path that Minho and I had mapped in them, meant that I had quickly lost my sense of direction. I couldn't tell which way was the way back to the inner ring and which way would take me to the edge, a dead end.

I caught sight of a griever at the same time it spotted me and I quickly dashed left as a blade changed, blocking it out. Or blocking me out. The blade I'd ran to was an outer blade, but instead of finding the outer wall as I'd been expecting there was a passageway. In the three years that I'd been running the maze, I'd never seen it and Minho had never said anything about it so I presume he hadn't seen it either. I glance back, the blades were blocking anything else from coming through, for now. I walked forward in the large concrete globe like room. It had the letters W.C.K.D imprinted in big red capital letters on the wall. The passage or walkway was like a bridge. It had two edges. I walked to one side and looked down. It was so dark that I couldn't see if there was a bottom to it. I looked forward again. In the wall in front was a hole that the walkway went into, like a tunnel. I walked towards it and saw that at the far end was a circular hole that seemed have nothing in it and seemed to be a dead end. It was a dead end.

I took a deep breath and ran back to the blades, if this was a dead end I'd rather face a griever out in the blades then get stuck with on in here. I ran out of the new corridor, and waited in the rather large space between the corridor and the closest blade, ready for when the next blade changed so I could run out. The blade changed but instead of an empty corridor like I was hoping for, a griever stood there, blocking my only exit.

My mind worked on its own as I turned to run, but I wasn't quick enough. I screamed as a claw grabbed me over my shoulders and around my left side. It pulled me back and into the air. And suddenly the claw was gone but I was still flying through the air. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my back as I collided with something, my breathe knocked out of me. I dropped onto the floor with a thud. Everything went black.

**AN: THANKS FOR READING. This was short, I'd admit but I only wanted it to be a taste of what is to come. Hope you enjoyed it.**


	2. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the maze runner, or any of it plotlines, characters, monsters, places or virus'. I only own my OC Ada, named after 19th Century Mathematician Ada Lovelace, and her plotline and background. **

**Chapter One**

**Years: 0 Months: 0 Weeks: 0 Days: 1**

I arched my back as I woke, covered in sweat. I was lay face flat on a metal mesh grid. I could feel what was left in my stomach come rising up and I gasped in a breath of air to try and force it back down. _I hated being sick_... I think. I tried to rack my brain for any memory for why that thought would come to me. I can't ever remember being sick but I know I hated it. I couldn't remember anything. I could feel my heartbeat race. Why couldn't I remember anything? Where was I? I glanced around but I couldn't see a thing. It was pitch black. I felt around with my hands. The mesh grid was beneath me, there was a box to my left and a barrel on my right. What was going on? I couldn't remember what had happened.

The mesh grid below me jolted causing me to latch onto the holes. I could feel it rising. The floor was going up, I was going up. Where was it taking me? I have a daunting feeling like I was travelling to hell. Strips of light finally allowed me to see my surrounding. Crates, rope, wood and an... animal? I could hear the breathing of it now. A blanket covered it and I decided it was probably better that that blanket remained there. I didn't want to know who my travelling partner was. Wait... Did I even know who I was? What is my name? Who am I?

I sucked in a deep breath as this metal lift continued to rise, getting faster and fast towards to top. My travelling companion cried out "Meeh, meeh". It was a goat. Why was I travelling with a goat? Where were we going?

I glanced up as the lift seemed to speed up even more. The lift was approaching a solid roof that was lit with a red light. I was sure it would never be able to stop in time. We were going to crash into it. I didn't dare look as we began getting closer. I laid down on my side, curling up, bracing for impact. My left hand was clenched tightly in the mesh grid beneath me. I could hear an alarm blaring, over and over again, getting louder as we approached the top. I took one last glance and screwed my eyes shut looking down. We were about to hit.

We never did. The lift came to a stop, the red light that flashed through my eyelids turned green and then went out completely. I slowly opened my eyes. It was pitch black. It was silent. The alarm had stopped. The lift wasn't making any cranking noises anymore. Even my travelling companion was silent.

Suddenly light burst through a newly opened gap. The gap continued to get bigger until it had completely uncovered the metal box I was in. My eyes screwed shut automatically as my eyes adjusted to the bright light. When my eyes opened there was a single shadow looming over the box. A boy. My heart leapt into my throat and backed up as much as I could into the corner furthest away from him. Was it him that had done this to me? Was he responsible?

I watched scared as he lifted part of the roof of the box and jumped down causing the box to rock slightly. I tried shuffling back more as he approached me slowly. He had his hands out in front in a sort of peaceful gesture but it didn't reassure me.

"hey... calm down. I won't hurt you." He said, his voice deep.

As he came closer I was able to see him better. He was tall and looked about fourteen, maybe fifteen. His skin was dark, his eyes a dark brown. His jaw was chiselled. He took a step closer but I again tried to shuffle back.

"Hey... I won't hurt you, I promise. I'm Alby. Can you tell me your name?" the boy, Alby said in an almost gentle tone.

I shook my head. I couldn't remember. Why couldn't I remember my name? or anything else?

"It's okay. Neither could I. I only remembered this morning. But just my name. I can't remember anything else either." Alby said, taking a step closer with his hand offered out. "How about I get us out of here, yeah. We'll talk."

I glanced between his face and his hand. His expression was gentle, but could I trust him? No yet, but he said he could get me out of this box and if there was anything I did want to do, it was get out of this box. I slowly reached out and took his hand. He pulled me up onto my feet and helped steady me when I rocked. He stood up onto a wooden crate that had been in the opposite corner and pulled himself out. He turned back to me and offered his hand back out. I climbed onto the wooden box, took his hand and between the two of us I climbed out myself. As soon as I looked around I wished I could get back into the box.

The box had come up into the middle of a field, on one side was a forest, on the other a small circular building with a wooden pen on one side of it that already held a single pig. Surrounding it all was these enormous concrete walls with Ivy growing up and down them, but never touching in the middle. Just in front of me was the only gap in the walls. I moved to step towards it when a hand clamped down on my shoulder.

"I wouldn't go through there. You'll see why soon. I almost made that very same mistake." Alby said, coming up beside me and letting go of my shoulder.

"What's through there?" I asked him.

"A maze. I almost got myself lost in it." Alby replied honestly, watching me carefully.

I glanced over at the gap again and asked, "Do you think the maze is the way out?"

"Maybe. But it's too dangerous to leave here right now" Alby commented and I noticed that when he looked over to the gap he wasn't looking through it but at the walls either side.

"Why?" I asked him, also glancing at the sides, trying to work out what he was starring at. I was half tempted to go out anyway but Alby was the only friendly thing I'd seen so far and I wasn't about to leave his side.

He gave a strained smile, "You'll see. Right now we need to get that stuff out of the box. We don't want the box to go back down with our supplies still in it"

I glanced at him. "Supplies?"

"Yes. A set came up with me as well." He replied, as he set off back to the edge of the box. "I've just about made the food last till now. Hopefully they've given us a bit more this time."

"How long have you been here?" I asked him as I followed him to the edge. He jumped down. I glanced down, not really wanting to get back in that box.

"A week." he replied, glancing up. He must have seen the uneasy look on my face because he then went on to say, "How about I pass everything up to you?"

I quickly nodded. He nodded back and began lifting things up to me. As I took them off him I placed them to the side, out of the way. What I couldn't help but noticed was the four letters that was printed on everything. W.C.K.D.

"What does W.C.K.D mean?" I asked him as he passed me up a sack of something heavy.

"I don't know. All I know is that it was on all of stuff that came up with me as well." he replied honestly as he turned to get the next thing and I turned to put the sack down.

"Do you think they put us here?" I thought out loud, turning back around.

All that was left was the crate with the goat in it and a coil of rope. Alby had picked up the rope, trying a loop in the end.

"You ask a lot of questions" Alby commented, flashing a small smile up at me.

"There's a lot I don't know" I responded, with a small flash of my own smile.

"Yeah, well neither do I. I know just as much as you do." Alby said, turning and opening a side of the wooden box with the goat in it gently. But as soon as there was a small gap the hand he was holding the loop in shot forward and put the loop around the goats neck. "I can't lift the whole box up but I can lift the goat. When he touches the ground, he might try and run. Don't let him. Try and hold him still till I can climb up, okay?"

Alby gently tugged the goat out by the rope before holding up a part of the rope to me, for me to take. I took it cautiously. "Don't let it pull that rope out of your hand or we'll loose him."

I nodded. Alby reached under the goat and lifted it, before carefully stepping up on the wooden box and pushing the goat up and out of the box. As Alby predicted the goat tried to run but I held the rope tightly in my hand. Alby quickly climbed up but before he could take the rope of me the loop fell apart from the tugging and the goat ran free. On instinct I ran after it, even with Alby shouting my name. I'd passed the doors without even realising it but I managed to grab the goat around its body.

Suddenly there was a loud booming noise and strong gale of wind rushed through the corridor I was in, causing the goat to run back through the door towards Alby. I saw that Alby was stood by the doors, yelling for me to get back. There was another booming noise and I saw why Alby hadn't wanted me to run out here. The gap in the wall was closing. I dashed towards it, thankful that I hadn't run very far into the maze. I would have gotten stuck. I slipped through it easily and it banged shut behind me.

"Next time, let it go. Your more worthy than the goat." Alby said gently, pressing his hands into my shoulders.

"Why did they just close?" I asked him.

Alby's face turned grave, and said, "We still need to get the goat into the pen."

He turned and ran towards where the goat had wandered to. The goat had wondered to the tallest bit of grass and was munching happily on it. Alby picked it up, surprising it before walking to the pen with the pig in it and placing the goat inside. I walked up to him.

"You didn't answer my question. Why does the gap shut?" I asked again.

He looked severely at me before answering my question with a question, "Why do you think they do?"

I glanced back to there the gap had been. "Well, we are obviously allowed out because they open, so that must mean they are... to keep something out. What do they keep out?"

"That I don't know. I've never seen what is out there, but I've heard it. You'll hear them tonight." Alby said gravely. "I imagine they aren't very pleasant."

For the rest of the night Ably had us going through the supplies they had sent up. Thankfully they'd sent up double the amount of food then what they did with him. They also sent up some blankets for me. Alby had said that was all that came with him, a blanket, some cooking equipment, food and a pig. More supplies had come up with me. We had tools, such as a hammer and other building gear. Big knifes also came up, bigger than those that you would use for cooking. We placed the knifes into the circular building in the very corner of this place. I presumed it was in the corner so it could use two of the concrete walls as its walls instead of having to build them. The walls that weren't the concrete walls were made out of mismatch wooden sticks, maybe branches tied together with string. Alby said that it was already here when he arrived. He had everything set up in there. The building was a lot bigger than it looked from outside. Just inside the door was three large steps, each going down to a new level. The bottom level was separated by three beams set out in a triangle. One was directly in the centre, holding up the centre of the roof. Two were slightly forward. Each had a different wooden beam going vertically across from the wall to the beams about four foot above the ground, just tall enough to lean on them. They left one gap to walk through to get to the middle. There was one final beam, in the corner at the back that was used to support the roof that leant against the outer concrete walls. Alby had built some makeshift lanterns that almost leant up against the concrete walls. There was a bowl like thing on top, and when I looked in I saw ashes. I presumed that was to keep the fire under control.

Alby had set his blanket in the centre, on the lowest level. I did the same, thinking it was safer to stay on level ground just in case I moved in the night. I wouldn't want to go rolling off the edge of one of the steps.

We settled down after we'd eaten. I think we both lay awake for a long time after we blew the lights out. There was still some light shining through, presumably from the moon, though I couldn't remember seeing a moon.

It was long after we settled down that I heard it. A bloodcurdling demonic cry.

"What was that?" I asked, louder than I meant to. The noise had scared me, I couldn't keep the volume down.

"That is what those walls keep out. But don't worry, they can't get in here." Alby said gently from where he was lay.

"How do you know?" I asked him, my worry overriding my usual common sense.

"In the week I've been here, they haven't. If the walls didn't stop them from getting in here why would they close?" Alby asked logically in response.

I remained quiet, slightly more reassured then I was before, but I still couldn't sleep. Before long I could hear Alby's snores. He'd fallen asleep and I couldn't help but wonder if he'd been able to sleep on his first night or had he spent the whole night awake just as I was probably about to.

Eventually I slipped off into a turbulent and disturbed sleep.

When morning came the next day I felt like I hadn't slept a wink. Alby was already awake and cooking some breakfast just outside the building. Eggs. They had come up in the supplies with me. We sat down together on a fallen log to eat.

"Do you think others will come?" I asked him.

He shrugged his shoulders and handed me my bowl that reminded me more of a plate that had had its sides lifted slightly. "Maybe, when it was just me I was asking myself whether I was going to be alone forever and then you turned up."

We ate silently until I asked the question he'd probably been dreading. "Can I look in the maze today?"

He glanced across at me.

"If that is the way out, then a little exploring couldn't go amiss. I'll be back before the gap closes." I explained to him.

He sighed and nodded, "Fine, but come back early. Way before those door close okay. Just to be safe."

I nodded, finishing the rest of my egg before standing up and heading back into the building. I rummaged through the supplies that come up with him. A water bottle was in it somewhere.

"Looking for this" Alby's voice came from behind me.

I turned and saw that he held up the very water bottle that I was looking for. It was a opaque white with a sports top lid. I took it, noticing that he'd found it and filled it in the time I was looking for it. He also handed me a small knife and its holder. I quickly strapped that to my leg. Alby walked with me to the gap just as it was opening.

"Be careful" he said.

"I always am." I replied to him with a smile before running out into the maze.

I ran for a long time, stopping occasionally to cut off a bit of Ivy and placing it on the floor so I could find my way back. Alby was right, it was a maze. I had ran into three dead ends already, having to backtrack to the next available route. I was starting to feel tired after what was probably a few hours of constant running and walking. I began heading back when I realised I couldn't spot any severed Ivy. I recalled my last few moves and began backtracking those, still not finding any Ivy even though I could remember cutting some off. The Ivy had just gone. I racked my brain for the route I took to get to that point for several hours of different turns came up as a blur. I was lost, in the middle of the maze. I dug deep into my energy reserves and began running, taking right and left turns as my gut told me. _You can do it Ada._ Ada? Was that my name? It must be. My name was Ada. I remembered my name. I didn't have time to celebrate though, I could tell it was getting late and I was still nowhere near finding my way back through the doors to Alby. Suddenly I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. Severed ivy. It was half pushed under some still hanging ivy. I'd found the route back. I ran. I didn't know how much time I had left until the gap closed. I skidded round the corner to see Alby waiting, arms crossed, at the threshold of the gap. I was just passing through the gap when the loud sound and the wind came.

"I thought I said come back early, before the doors close." Alby almost growled his words out.

"And I planned to. I got lost. I was cutting off Ivy after every turn so I could find my way back but when I started heading back the Ivy had just vanished." I told him, going on to explain everything to him.

The gap, or doors as Aby calls them, began to close. Both of us stood to watch.

"I remembered my name. It's Ada." I told him, but he never said anything back. He was just watching me, glancing me over. I could only conclude he was checking that I really was okay.

I glanced at Alby and stated, "I will be going back out there tomorrow and the day after and the day after that."

I had only known Alby for a day but I guessed that he was the sort that would stop me from going out there again after this incident. But I refused to do that. I wanted to find the way out of here.

He looked at me severely for several minutes before nodding sharply and walking off.

I glanced back at the doors and thought about the maze on the other side. _I will solve you. I will get Alby and I out of here and any others that come. Whether it takes me a few days or a few years, I will do it._

**AN: I apologize for any mistakes in the writing. I am currently looking for a Beta, so if any of you lovely readers are interested... :)**

**Hope you enjoyed the first chapter and I'll hope to get the next one written up soon. Just a word of warning, it is assessment session so I may be busy with essays but as soon as those are done my attention is 100% on this story :)**


	3. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the maze runner, or any of it plotlines, characters, monsters, places or virus'. I only own my OC Ada, named after 19th Century Mathematician Ada Lovelace, and her plotline and background. **

**Chapter Two**

**Years: 2 Months: 1 Weeks: 0 Days: 1**

Slabs. Cement. Vines... More floor slabs. More cement walls. More vines climbing up the walls. Even more floor slabs. Even more cement walls. Even more vines climbing up the wall. It was a continuing pattern through this maze. Slabs. Cement. Vines. Nothing changes but the places of the corridors we run. Everything else remains the same until you reach the centre and outer ring.

The grey floor slabs have changed to a solid floor that seems to be made from compressed sand. The cement walls thin out until you reach the centre ring that seemed to be a continuous circle around the eight sections that we'd discovered. The circle's width was wide with high light grey cement walls on either side. Only one corridor in the inner ring of the maze from each section went into the central ring.

The same went for the outer ring. There was only one passageway from the central ring to the outer ring in each section. So there was only eight entrances to the outer ring. The outer ring shared the same floor as the central ring, the compressed sand, but the outer ring only had cement walls separating the eight sections, the rest of the walls in the maze were made up by high blade like walls that I was sure had the possibility to change, but we had yet to see them in a different pattern. It was in the outer section that was running.

I can hear my footsteps and the footsteps of my running partner for the day, Ben. I always alternate between running with Ben and running with Minho. Minho is more serious but runs at the same sort of pace that I do, but Ben was more talkative even if he was a bit slower. I enjoyed having Ben run alongside me, it was company in this, according to appearance, empty maze.

We currently had six runners and today was hoped to finally find the exit to the maze. From the large 3D map that Minho and I have been building with sticks for the last two years we have guessed that we only have one more small area to search. Ben and I are in a new corridor now. Minho and Justin were in another and the final two runners Alfred and Stan were in another. We were hoping that one of the three remaining passageways would lead to a way out.

Ben and I turned left and only ran for a few seconds before Ben was knocked off his feet by another person. Alfred and Stan had ran from a passageway that Ben and I were just running past. Alfred and I helped Ben and Stan to their feet when Minho and Justin ran from around another passageway. We had all ended up in the same spot, and I couldn't see an exit. The six of us glanced at each other as the realisation of what this meant hit us.

"Did anybody see any other passageways?" Minho asked, probably just as desperate as the rest of us to find another passageway system that might lead to a way out.

We all shook our heads. I knew for sure that the route Ben and I took was the only passageway. Even we were confused about how little passageways there was left to map.

"Does that mean that's it? we've mapped it all?" Alfred asked, almost disbelieving and worried. He fidgeted and shifted his balance as he spoke, showing his worry.

"We can't have, surely. We haven't found an exit. There must be a way out." Stan argued back. He glanced between the rest of us, especially towards Minho and I.

I also glanced to Minho and he glanced at me. We shared a worried glance before we broke our gaze and looked at the others. It was me that spoke next, "Let's get back to the glade. We'll map down the passageways and have another look at the map. For now, not a word of this to anyone. Let's make sure we have our facts straight before we go telling everyone else and causing a panic."

The others nodded. We ran together on the way back. We ran silently. All of us were stuck in our heads. What could this mean? We'd completed the maze, but there was no exit. How were we meant to tell everyone else that we were stuck in the glade with no way out? People would lose hope and even the will to continue. The Glade would fall in chaos. We'd already seen what lack of hope could do to people. It could destroy the little community that we'd managed to build in the last two years.

When we reached the glade we didn't bother stopping, we went straight for the runner hut in the woods. We saw the others hard at work as we passed and Minho who had come up to run next to me, spared them a worried glance. I nudged him as a supportive gesture as we disappeared into the woods.

The runners hut was in the middle of the wood and only runners were allowed inside. It was made completely out of tree branches and was a circle shape. In the centre was a raised bit of ground that Minho and I used as the base for our 3D map. We had a tarp covering it, just in case anybody does find their way out to the runners hut. Around the walls of the room was papers hung up messily and few desks that we could use to draw our sections. There was also a board that stated the rules and instructions of the runners.

The six of us entered and went to the desks to draw our sections while we still remembered them. As we had ran in pairs we could draw in pairs. Together Ben and I drew out the path that we had ran that day before turning to the others. Minho pulled the tarp off the 3D map and grabbed the small twigs that we used to build the wall. Minho and I started with the route Ben and I took. Carefully placing in the sticks to match the scale of the model in comparison to the actually maze. We then moved onto Stan and Alfred's path before finishing with the path that Minho and Justin mapped. I think all of us were heartbroken when we realised that the three paths filled the hole that we had had completely. There was no possible way that there was another passageway.

"What do we do now?" Justin asked.

The other four were stood at various places around the 3D map, all of them looking towards Minho and I. Minho and I shared another glance. Neither of us knew what to do or say. The glance that we shared told the other four all they needed to know.

"Ben, go and get Alby. Just Alby. We'll see what he wants to do about this." Minho ordered Ben, who was stood on the opposite side of me.

Ben nodded and ran out. As his footsteps faded I looked over the map.

"There must be a way." I said, glancing over the map, studying every corridor, every passageway to try and find a possible explanation.

"Ada, we've ran the whole thing." Minho replied pessimistically.

"And yet we've never seen any grievers, in two years that we've been running this, we've never seen a single one." I replied to him, with a valid argument and I could tell by the look on his face that he recognises the validity of it.

"Maybe they just stay in the sections we don't run. I mean there are eight sections, we only cover one a day" Stan suggested but you could tell by the look on his face that even he wasn't completely convinced by his own argument.

I shook my head. "No, they must leave the maze somehow."

At that point, Ben reappeared with Alby and Newt in toe. I was going to mention that we had said just Alby but then I realised as much as I don't really want Newt to know the honest truth, he was still second in command.

"Ben said you wanted to talk to me urgently" Alby said, his eyes resting on Minho and I.

We shared another glance, but this time to argue about who was going to deliver the news. In the end Minho bowed out of the staring contest and began talking, "We've come across a problem"

"What sort of problem?" Newt asked confused glancing between Minho and I as we kept sharing a look.

"We completed the maze" Minho told them. "We've ran the entire thing, and there is no exit"

"No obvious exit" I interjected. I didn't want them think it was a complete guarantee and that there was no way out at all.

Alby and Newt both looked shocked and worried. They were glancing at each other, probably thinking the same as we were. What do we do now? What do we tell everyone?

"If this gets out..." Newt started to say when he faded off.

"It would be chaos" Alby agreed with the point that Newt had begun to say.

"But can we really lie to them? People will start getting suspicious when they stop going out into the maze" Newt argued, putting up another argument.

"We could keep running" I suggested, responding to the problem that he was suggesting.

"Is it worth the risk of getting stuck in there or running into a griever when there's nothing to find?" Alby questioned me, glancing round at the other runners as he spoke.

"It might be if it turns out the exit is just hidden. I still think the exit is in the maze. I think the grievers leave the maze during the day so if they can get out, there must be a way out, but it just isn't a obvious open passageway or an obvious door. Besides, even if it wasn't, if this gets out people will lose hope, and people lose hope we lose everything." I argued my point back.

"She's right. If people start to think there is no way out through the maze, people will start looking for other ways and we've all experienced what happens then." Minho agreed.

His last sentence caused us all to cringe. The food shortage and George were still fresh in our minds. The food shortage which was caused by the box not coming up when it should have after we'd put someone in the box the previous week to see if it would take them down. We could all remember the starving pains. Everything grinded to a halt towards the end of the week because nobody had the energy to do anything on an empty stomach, and that caused problems in the weeks that followed. And George. George was still ingrained in our minds. He'd volunteered to be the one we lowered down the shaft that the box comes up in. The sight of his bloody, half missing, dead body caused most of the Glade's population to have nightmares for weeks. Some of the younger ones still do.

"And if there is no way out?" Newt asked, his voice cracking a little, making Minho, Alby and I looked at him with a worried glance.

"There will be" I said firmly, looking directly at him so he can see in my eyes that I really believed it.

"How can you know?" He responded, almost hopelessly.

I didn't reply straight away. I walked around the map so I was stood within touching distance of him. This was exactly why I had hoped Alby would come alone. I knew Alby would be able to accept there was still hope, no matter how small, but Newt wouldn't. He'd lost hope before and we'd almost lost him. It almost broke those of us that knew what really happened and I refuse to go through that again.

"Because I have faith and hope that we will get out of here and go on to something better. If we lose hope, we lose any chance of getting out because if we don't believe that we can get out, we will never look and if we never look we'll never find the exit." I told him. "Besides, I have three theories."

That caught the interest in Alby and the others. I quickly repeated my griever theory.

"And the other two?" Alby asked, half interested and half doubtful.

"Now that we've mapped the maze, the creators may open up further areas, further out. Perhaps they want us to believe that it's done and over before they open the remaining sections. Maybe the outer ring isn't the furthest ring." I suggested. Even I had to admit that this theory was sketchier than my griever theory or my last theory but it was still a possibility that we can't rule out.

"And the third theory?" Newt asked, his face showing the doubt that he has on my theories.

"Well, it kind of combines the two previous. Further sections that open to the grievers, or in other words, only open at night. They open when our doors close and they close when our doors open" I suggested.

"I think each of your theories get more and more farfetched as we go." Stan spoke up from where he was standing. I had almost forgot that he and the other runners were still here.

"Just think about it. The grievers disappear each morning and so does everybody that gets stuck out there. We never see anything of them again. The grievers have to go somewhere" I argued with him.

"Or they just go into the sections you are not in. Perhaps at night they purposely go into the sections that are going to be shut the next day, meaning you'll never see them during the day." Newt suggested, unaware that this argument had already been said before he arrived.

"You do realise that that sounds just as possible as any of my theories. Predators that purposely go where their prey isn't. I'm suggesting they have a home of some sort, a further out section to sleep in or rest during the day so they can hunt under the dark at night." I commented, furthering my point.

"You've just contradicted your own point. Why would they rest during the day when they can get their pray easier during the day?" Newt argued back.

I rolled my eyes but before I could reply Minho jumped in and replied for me, "Because, if the 'home' does exist, they know they won't be able to get into their 'home' after a certain time. And just like how we don't want to be stuck out of the glade, they don't want to be stuck out of their 'home'."

"Enough." Alby said, rather loudly. He'd been silent for a while so it made most of us jump when he had suddenly spoke. "Whether or not this 'home' exists is irrelevant to me at the moment. I have a Glade to run. This remains between us. Nobody else can know. If they did then we may as well forget every single one of the rules. It would be chaos and the Glade wouldn't survive it. Ada, Minho, I suppose you two would be willing to keep running?"

Minho and I nodded to him.

Alby turned to the other runners and said, "If you are willing to stay as runners and continue to run the maze, then please do. It would be better for moral if you did. But if you are not willing we can find you another job to do."

The other four glanced around each other and for a moment I thought they would change jobs, when Ben said, "I'll run"

The other three soon followed Ben's example. We still had a full team of runners.

Alby nodded. "Everything is else is up to you. I've got a greenie to show around and a bonfire to organise."

Alby left after that, with Newt trailing after him. Minho and I shared a glance before looking to the other runners.

"From now on your objective is to look for anything out of the ordinary, especially around the outer edge. Anything may mean the difference in finding a way out." I told them.

"Continue to learn the layout of the maze, continue to memorise the route that you have taken and continue to compare that to what we have already mapped. If there is any difference you let either Ada or I know. Are we clear?" Minho set out the orders in the same way a commander of an army would set out theirs.

The four of them nodded with purpose. At least they had something to look for and something to do when they run around that maze all day.

"Alright, go and freshen up. Let's forget about all of this for tonight. It's a time of celebration. We have a new greenbean and I want to see what they're like." I told them.

The four of them smiled, nodded and left the room. I was about to do the same when Minho's smirk caught my attention.

"What now?" I asked him smirking myself.

"Still hoping for a girl aren't you?" he asked back his smirk turning into a grin because he knew that he was right.

"What makes you think that?" I asked him back. Just because what he said is true doesn't mean I was going to admit it.

"You always say ' what they're like ' never ' what he's like' even though you've been the only girl in two years. With how eager you are for a girl I'm starting to think that you don't like our manly company" he commented.

I shrugged, "It's not that I don't like all the male company but sometime I just want to have some girl time. Have a girly gossip, not that you boys don't gossip. And it would mean less attention. Every month Gally has to threaten the greenbean because they're either staring or have some sort of intention. I'm sure this month will be the same"

"Well, I guess we'll just have to see. We better get cleaned up or we'll miss the food." Minho said, as he swung an arm around my shoulders and led us out. "So Gally threatens the greenbean huh?"

"Yeah, every month without fail." I replied as we head through the woods back to the main part of the Glade.

Minho grunted, "Shouldn't that be Alby's job. I mean, I know Gally's your brother but Alby's your boyfriend. Shouldn't he be the one threatening them to stay away from his girl."

I laughed. "Yeah but according to Newt as soon as they find out I'm with Alby they shut up. Apparently Alby is very intimidating."

"Well, he does have the power to banish someone so I would say that's a valid response" Minho said, with a joking tone.

I laugh "Oh come on, Alby would never banish someone for trying it on with me."

"They don't know that" Minho commented cheekily as we passed the last tree in the forest.

We just laughed together but my thoughts were going back to the promise I'd made myself when I first arrived. I had promised myself that I would get us out and I was still determined to. There may be a block in the road but we'll get past it and we'll find a way out.


End file.
